Chief Innovation Officer at Cigna in St. Louis

Chief Innovation Officer

Location: St. Louis, MO · Hybrid

Chief Business Innovation Officer

The Chief Business Innovation Officer is responsible for building and leading the enterprise capability that identifies, incubates, and commercializes future sources of growth beyond the organization's current business portfolio.

Reporting to the EVP, Enterprise Strategy, Ventures & Innovation and serving as a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), this leader will establish and operate the company's innovation platform, creating the governance, portfolio management disciplines, external ecosystem relationships, incubation processes, and commercialization pathways required to continuously develop new sources of enterprise value.

The leader will focus on opportunities that extend beyond existing business boundaries while also helping the enterprise identify and advance adjacent growth opportunities that leverage current assets, capabilities, channels, and market positions. This includes evaluating unmet customer needs, emerging healthcare trends, technology-enabled solutions, business model innovation, and opportunities across adjacent and emerging markets.

This leader will oversee the full innovation portfolio across multiple horizons, balancing near-term growth opportunities, cross-enterprise innovation initiatives, disruptive business models, and new growth platforms. Through disciplined experimentation, validated learning, strategic partnerships, and commercialization pathways, the VP will convert emerging opportunities into scalable businesses, capabilities, and sources of long-term enterprise value.

Unlike traditional product development roles focused on existing business lines, this role is accountable for building the enterprise innovation system that continuously generates and advances future growth opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Innovation Strategy & Portfolio Leadership

• Develop and lead the enterprise innovation strategy and long-term growth agenda aligned to enterprise priorities.
• Establish and govern a balanced innovation portfolio spanning adjacent growth opportunities, cross-enterprise innovation, disruptive business models, and emerging growth platforms.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities with potential to create meaningful enterprise value and strategic advantage.
• Create visibility into innovation portfolio performance, investment allocation, commercialization progress, and value creation.
• Establish portfolio management disciplines that balance risk, investment, learning, and commercial outcomes across multiple innovation horizons.
• Ensure innovation efforts remain focused on enterprise-level opportunities with meaningful strategic and financial impact.

Innovation Operating System & Governance

• Design and operate the enterprise innovation operating system, including opportunity identification, prioritization, governance, incubation, commercialization, and scaling processes.
• Establish stage-gated innovation frameworks and investment disciplines that support evidence-based decision making.
• Create governance mechanisms that determine when opportunities should be accelerated, refined, scaled, partnered, acquired, or discontinued.
• Develop repeatable approaches for evaluating opportunity attractiveness, strategic fit, scalability, enterprise readiness, and commercial potential.
• Implement innovation measurement frameworks focused on learning velocity, portfolio quality, capital effectiveness, commercialization outcomes, and enterprise value creation.
• Drive enterprise alignment around innovation priorities, resource allocation, and commercialization decisions.

New Business Creation & Growth Platform Development

• Identify unmet customer, employer, provider, payer, and consumer needs that create opportunities for new business development.
• Design new products, services, capabilities, platforms, and business models that address emerging market opportunities.
• Evaluate adjacent markets and growth categories where the organization can create competitive advantage.
• Develop opportunity theses that translate emerging healthcare, consumer, technology, and ecosystem shifts into actionable growth strategies.
• Lead concept development from ideation through business case development, incubation, commercialization, and identifying pathways to scale.
• Build sustainable growth platforms capable of generating long-term enterprise value and future revenue streams.

Innovation Incubation & Venture Building

• Own the innovation funnel that transforms emerging ideas into investable business opportunities.
• Create and oversee the enterprise innovation pipeline from opportunity identification through commercialization.
• Lead rapid experimentation and pilot programs to validate customer value, feasibility, viability, regulatory readiness, and enterprise fit.
• Establish innovation incubators, venture-building capabilities, and commercialization pathways as appropriate.
• Partner with business leaders to transition validated opportunities into scalable enterprise growth platforms.
• Develop clear pathways from experimentation to commercialization through internal scaling, partnerships, acquisitions, investments, or new venture creation.
• Oversee innovation teams responsible for business design, opportunity assessment, incubation, evidence generation, commercialization planning, and venture development.

Strategic Partnerships & Ecosystem Innovation

• Build and activate a broad network of strategic partners, startups, venture investors, technology providers, academic institutions, healthcare innovators, and ecosystem participants.
• Expand the organization's external innovation ecosystem to accelerate learning, opportunity development, and commercialization.
• Leverage partnerships, open innovation models, and ecosystem relationships to access emerging technologies, capabilities, talent, and market opportunities.
• Collaborate closely with the Ventures organization to evaluate opportunities for investment, partnership, incubation, acquisition, or co-creation.
• Develop innovative partnership structures that accelerate growth while reducing development risk.
• Establish external relationships that strengthen the company's ability to identify and pursue emerging opportunities before they become mainstream.

Innovation Investment & Experimentation

• Establish a culture of disciplined experimentation and validated learning across the innovation portfolio.
• Develop evidence-based approaches to testing market demand, operational feasibility, regulatory readiness, and commercial viability.
• Create funding models tied to learning milestones, evidence thresholds, and portfolio governance decisions.
• Promote rapid testing, iteration, and decision-making while maintaining appropriate capital discipline.
• Build organizational capabilities that encourage intelligent risk-taking, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure innovation investments are evaluated based on evidence, strategic relevance, and enterprise value potential.

Executive Leadership & Enterprise Influence

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Executive Leadership Team regarding future growth opportunities and emerging market shifts.
• Shape enterprise discussions around innovation priorities, growth opportunities, ecosystem partnerships, and future business models.
• Partner closely with Enterprise Strategy, Strategic Intelligence, Ventures, Technology, Data & Analytics, and business leaders to advance innovation priorities.
• Champion a future-focused mindset across the organization and create greater enterprise orientation toward growth, experimentation, and innovation.
• Educate leaders on emerging healthcare trends, technology shifts, business model evolution, and disruptive market developments.
• Influence enterprise investment and strategic decisions through innovation insights, opportunity assessments, and portfolio recommendations.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in innovation, new business development, venture building, product strategy, healthcare strategy, consulting, corporate development, entrepreneurship, or related fields.

• Demonstrated success launching new products, services, businesses, or growth initiatives.

• Experience identifying and evaluating emerging market opportunities.

• Strong understanding of healthcare, consumer trends, technology disruption, and business model innovation.

• Proven track record influencing executive leaders and driving enterprise change.

• Exceptional strategic thinking, creativity, and commercial judgment.

• Experience leading cross-functional teams in highly matrixed organizations.

Leadership Expectations

• Think beyond current business realities to identify future sources of value creation.
• Balance long-term vision with pragmatic execution and commercialization.
• Translate ambiguity into actionable opportunities and investment decisions.
• Operate effectively across strategy, innovation, investments, technology, and business operations.
• Build credibility and influence without relying on formal authority.
• Foster entrepreneurial thinking while maintaining enterprise discipline.
• Demonstrate strong commercial judgment, intellectual curiosity, and learning agility.
• Build and sustain high-performing internal and external innovation networks.

Success Measures

• A healthy pipeline of qualified innovation opportunities aligned to enterprise strategy.
• Creation of multiple scalable growth opportunities and future growth platforms.
• Measurable enterprise value generated through innovation initiatives.
• Successful commercialization of new products, services, capabilities, and business models.
• Effective portfolio management across multiple innovation horizons.

If you will be working at home occasionally or permanently, the internet connection must be obtained through a cable broadband or fiber optic internet service provider with speeds of at least 10Mbps download/5Mbps upload.For this position, we anticipate offering an annual salary of 272,200 - 408,400 USD / yearly, depending on relevant factors, including experience and geographic location.

This role is also anticipated to be eligible to participate in an annual bonus and long term incentive plan.

At The Cigna Group, you’ll enjoy a comprehensive range of benefits, with a focus on supporting your whole health. Starting on day one of your employment, you’ll be offered several health-related benefits including medical, vision, dental, and well-being and behavioral health programs. We also offer 401(k), company paid life insurance, tuition reimbursement, a minimum of 18 days of paid time off per year, paid holidays, and leaves of absence. For more details on our employee benefits programs, click here.

About Cigna Healthcare

Cigna Healthcare, a division of The Cigna Group, is an advocate for better health through every stage of life. We guide our customers through the health care system, empowering them with the information and insight they need to make the best choices for improving their health and vitality. Join us in driving growth and improving lives.

Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, age, disability, sex, childbirth (including pregnancy) or related medical conditions including but not limited to lactation, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, religion, national origin, ancestry, marital or familial status, genetic information, status with regard to public assistance, citizenship status or any other characteristic protected by applicable equal employment opportunity laws.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete the online application process, please email seeyourself@thecignagroup.com for assistance. Please note that this email inbox is dedicated to accommodation requests only and cannot provide application updates or accept resumes.

The Cigna Group has a tobacco-free policy and reserves the right not to hire tobacco/nicotine users in states where that is legally permissible. Candidates in such states who use tobacco/nicotine will not be considered for employment unless they enter a qualifying smoking cessation program prior to the start of their employment. These states include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Washington State.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances.